The Land of Wool and Honey

To Indulge or Overindulge: That is the Question

While my out-of-town trips are becoming increasingly shorter these days, I've discovered I've become quite the expert at filling those short trips with long stretches of wicked luxury.  My latest field research on the subject?  A girls' weekend (or in my case, an evening) at my sister's house in Howell.

 

Liz and Becca, our lovely host.  You can tell they're twins, right?  Notice the brownies in the lower right-hand corner of the photo.  For a weekend steeped in ultimate bliss, do NOT forget the brownies.  Or the Skittles, Sander's hot fudge sauce or Reese's Pieces.

Can't decide whether you'd rather eat breakfast or ice cream?  Hold that thought.

How about a few scoops of Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream on your waffles?  Yup.  That works.  (Sprinkle liberally with fresh fruit, so as not to appear a total fatass.)

Your knitting sister, not wanting you to feel left out for missing a trip to a LYS, may pick out a few fibery delights for you.  Accept with a squeal.

 

When shopping at a consignment shop far from home and you stumble upon not one but five (FIVE!) pairs of fabulously fitting jeans for fall,

as well as a lovely red sweater,

that all come to less than $100.00, whatever you do, do not hesitate.  Buy them all.

While on vacation--even if you're only spending 24 hours away from home--it really doesn't hurt to spend a Sunday afternoon sipping cocktails.

An ice-cold Mary Pickford will do the trick.  A margarita would equally suffice.

You could knit a little on a beautiful shawl made from exquisitely handpainted yarn from a hard-to-obtain indie dyer, but heaven forbid you should take any pictures of that.

I can't say exactly what would happento your waistline your checking account your liver if you applied this pattern to an entire weekend of rest and relaxation, but I'm ready to find out. 

Sunshine and Rainbows

Things that make most excellent Mondays:

1.  Breakfast.  Most specifically, breakfast with out-of-town friends who love both knitting and decadent pastries.   

2.  Packages.  Most specifically, packages containing luxurious spinning fibers  (alpaca, silk, cashmere, et. al.) and a new album to add to the trans-ambient industrial rock music collection.

(Notice that both the rainbow-dyed roving and this Radiohead album showed up in my P.O. box on the same day.  If that's not a sign from the Universe, I don't know what is.)

3.  Phone calls from dads.  Most specifically, dads that begin conversations with the phrase, "What it be like?"  (If you know Jer, I know you can picture this.)

4.  More packages.  Most specifically, a heads up that a big, big box of buttery soft wool (20 colors of Merino worsted) is making its long-awaited trek to Michigan!

5.  And, well, having a very, very good day.  Most specifically, a very, very good day filled with iced tea, phone calls, mail orders, iced tea, happy customers, chocolate, yarn, iced tea, newspaper interviews, ringing cash register, more yarn, did I say iced tea...?

Happy Monday!

A New Decade Begins

Memorial Day Weekend is probably my favorite holiday.  Three- day weekends jam-packed with homemade hot dogs, domestic light beer and family-filled party barges--what's there not to love?!?  But there is something about Memorial Day that I love more than the smell of smoldering charcoal briquettes--it's the weekend that signifies the biggest decision I've ever made.  (Entering the sanctity of marriage?  Child's play.)  Four years ago this weekend, I bought the most charming yarn shop I'd ever been to.  And 10 years ago, Memorial Day weekend 2000, that shop opened its doors in Cedar for the first time.  On Friday, May 28th 2010, we celebrated another new beginning--by changing the name of the business.

 
This is the excerpt from the shop's email newsletter explaining the change--if you've already read this, scroll down to the bottom of the post to get to the pictures.  (Want to receive the email newsletter?  Email me at inishknits AT charter DOT net to sign up.  New email address coming soon.)

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A name is something we choose carefully--for our children, our pets, our cottage Up North--to imbue them with thought, love and meaning, and to make them uniquely ours.  The name 'Inish Knits' has served this shop well for 10 years in Cedar (and at least four years before that on Peggy's farmstead), but we're ready for a change.  'Inish Knits' was a perfect fit for the original owner of the shop--she is of English and Irish descent, and during her time here, she focused much of the shop's inventory on designs, patterns and rare wool imports from the UK.  As Inish Knits originated with a personal connection to Gaelic heritage, the path to choosing the name Wool & Honey has a story, too.

My name, Melissa, means 'honeybee' in Greek.  I've always loved my name and have personally identified with all things related to bees and honey.  After using this moniker on the blog for the past three years, I thought to myself, You know, that actually kind of works.

To me, Wool & Honey symbolizes the Good Life.  "The land of milk and honey" is a representation of the most divine place on earth, Paradise Found, the land of abundance, your Happy Place.  In my mind, heaven on earth is a yarn shop--filled with beautiful things that add a bit of shine to my daily life.

Bees are amazing creatures.  Every day, these little workers gather pollen--powdery bits of fluff--and with a little time and effort, transform it into a gorgeous, golden nectar.  How similar we knitters are to the bee!  Taking nothing more than two sticks and a string, we create warmth and comfort--fabric to clothe and decorate our bodies.

The hive is the epicentre of it all--it's home.  The bee may travel to distant fields and orchards, but there's something hardwired inside her brain that always brings her back.  Whether Leelanau County is your home or the home of your heart, there is a fiber community waiting here for you.

But why delights?  Leelanau means 'delight of life' or 'land of delight' in Ojibwa....it's our nod to the people who discovered this particular heaven on earth.

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In conjunction with the name change, I figured things had better look a little different around here.  I moved the furniture around.  Again.

 

 

 

Added a new collection of fabulous, pretty things:

 

A set of two sheep soaps--just the right gift for a knitting hostess!

 

8" shawl pins--in understated squiggles, earthy leaves and modern spirals. 

 

The Knit Kit.  The knitter's equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife.  Scissors, point protectors, tape measure, row counter (with locking option), thread cutter, crochet hook, stitch markers all in one convenient, self-contained $20.00 package.  Genius.

 

Because who doesn't need a mini sock to hang on their set of keys?

 

And quite possibly my newest favorite "delight"--bath bees!  Little royal jelly bath beads in the shape of honeybees.  Perfect.

And more yarn, of course. 

 
 

We had a party to celebrate on Friday night and I was blown away by the response.  I feel so loved by so many friends!  These beautiful flowers were given to me by Michele, Linda, Cindy and Marcia, Chris and Allie, Pam and Mark and Elizabeth, and the sparkling wine was a gift from Liz and Chad.  Not pictured are the bottles of local wine procured by Bobbie, Norvilla, Yarrow and Chris.  (We drank those.)  My parents were there and my mother-in-law, too.  We sipped mead and ate brie with honeycomb, strawberries and cream cheese, confetti cake and apples drizzled with honey--a Jewish tradition celebrated at Rosh Hashanah to symbolize a sweet start to a new year.

I can't wait to see how the next ten years unfold.  Thank you, friends, for being the sweetest part of it all.